Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - LEVEL UP your life now! New habits challenge | Clutterbug Podcast # 108

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Let's level up our lives together! I want to create five new daily habits. In this podcast, I'll share those with you and my tips for creating new habits and self motivation.        You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are five new habits that I want to start incorporating into my every day. These are things that I've been saying forever and ever and ever. And I'm putting them off because I'm making mountains out of molehills. I know how to do new habit forming. I just need to actually get off my butt and make it happen. Hey Clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I thought I would do a little challenge with you.

A new habit challenge with you. We could hold each other accountable. Let's look at this as like leveling up boot camp, right? There are things in our lives that we want to change, ways that we want to improve and grow and just, yeah, be better adults. But it's one thing to wish it and it's one thing to do it. And I'm doing a lot of wishing and not a lot of doing, especially when it comes to these five things that I want to start incorporating into my every day.

And I think the reason so many of us, me included, we aren't making huge strides towards the things we know we should be doing. We're not actually, you know, we should go to bed earlier, we should get up earlier, we should drink more water, whatever it is that we know we should do. We should eat healthy. We should work out. I think, first of all, we're seeing it in a really negative light. It's something that we should do, but we don't want to do, which is automatically making it harder. But the other thing is, sometimes we can focus on the end goal instead of each little step that we need to take. And when you're focusing on the end goal, it seems overwhelming. It seems like a really big undertaking.

We couldn't possibly do it in a few minutes or a few days. And so we put off doing it at all. And at least that's what I do. So let's talk about my five habits that I want to start including every single day, but also how we can make this easy and achievable. And while you're listening to this podcast, I want you to think about some habits that you can start adding to your day to level up your life, right? What can you do to take something to the next level? And I honestly feel like this is just adulting in general. Any area of our life that we improve in,

it just makes our life easier and makes it better. I mean, when I first got married and had kids, I was terrible with money. I couldn't balance a checkbook. I was broke. I actually claimed bankruptcy in my mid-20s. I just could not manage money. I could manage my house. I couldn't manage a lot of things. And I worked towards all of those things, not by changing overnight, but by making small, tiny, actionable steps every day that added up to a big thing. With my finances, I just started reading a lot of finance literary books. Rich Dad, Poor Dad was one of the first books I ever read when it came to finances or The Wealthy Barber. Oh my God, I loved that book. The Millionaire Next Door, excellent book. The more I read, the more I was listening to Dave Ramsey back in the

day, like, oh, gee, the more I listened to all of this, the more my mindset slowly started to change. And then it was just saving 10%. I would get my paycheck and 10% would immediately immediately get saved. It would be like I was paying myself, you know, that was the first bill that came out. It went into my savings account and I didn't touch that. And we still do that to this day. We save first. We save that 10% first. And it didn't seem like a big thing. It was like, how are you going to save, you know, $10,000? Oh my God. At the time, I felt like I didn't have a left over $5 at the end of the week before. How could I possibly save $10,000? A hundred thousand dollars. a million dollars. It was ridiculous. You might as well ask me to fly to the moon with like a homemade

jetpack. It seemed absurd. But it just needed to be a small step every day. And it was the same with everything. Growing a business, writing a book, doing a television show, everything that I've done has been small steps. It's never been this huge undertaking. So with this knowledge, I want to take small steps in other areas of my life where I am struggling so I can level up those two. And we're going to talk about self-motivation. We're going to talk about some really easy things that you can do to sort of get motivated when you're not feeling motivated. But first, I wanted to talk about my five habits that I want to include in my every day and hopefully you can relate to these, but I want you to think of a few, maybe five, two, maybe three, habits that

you can start incorporating to your every day and we'll hold each other accountable. Okay. The first thing I have to do is wake up earlier. I'm really mortified to admit, I don't, I mean, I don't have a 9 to 5 job. I don't have any place to go. It's summer break. I'm sleeping till noon. Noon.

Mortifying. My kids are old enough that are completely self-sufficient, but I am not setting a good example for them and I'm certainly not being a good example for myself. When I don't get up till noon, I don't get moving till 2. or three, which means I'm just starting my workday, like mid-afternoon. I have to stop for dinner and then we spend time with the kids after dinner. So I don't really work until late at night, which means I'm exhausted, which means I'm staying up tonight. And it's this like vicious cycle. If I could work to nine to five, I could spend time with my husband after dinner. I could

maybe, I don't know, do things with friends. I could be like a human instead of someone who works from midnight till 2 in the morning. And I mean, while it's fine, the rest of the world is not on my schedule. And so does everyone adapt or do I adapt? And the answer is obviously I adapt. So I want to start waking up earlier. That means I want to start going to bed earlier, which leads me to my second habit. I'm going to start reading one hour before bed. I have to put down the screen. I can waste hours looking at Facebook. I don't even like the people on my Facebook. Sorry. if you're on my Facebook. But the truth is like, I hardly know you. I mean, I saw you in the halls in high school. Why am I reading about your dog and your kids and your grandkids now and all this other? Like,

I don't, I wouldn't care if you weren't on Facebook. No offense. This sounds so brutal. But the truth is, it's a waste of my time. And it's a waste of my mental capacity. And I'm not even enjoying myself. If I'm really being honest, I'm just, I'm just blowing time that could be so. spent doing something I enjoy. And so every hour before bed, I want to read for one hour, a book. I love self-help books. I don't love reading self-help books, but I'm going to try. But I also, I'm going to read some romance or some YA or some terrible vampire crap. I don't know. I'm going to read an old school paper book, one hour before bed to calm my brain down, but also because everyone that I know who's leveling up their life and everything I've ever done to level up my life

has been knowledge that I've borrowed from somebody else. I fix my finances reading finance books. I learned about how to run a business by reading business books. I mean, I learned how to be an author by reading other people who were writing books. Everything that I've done that I feel proud of, someone else has given me that knowledge, that information, that wisdom from a book to help me succeed. So why am I not continuing to educate myself when I know that what you get from a book is so much more than just enjoying your time reading? You're building that tool, that army for life of other people's knowledge and gifts and wisdom. And so I'm going to do that every night before bed. I can't promise myself that it's always going to be a self-help book because sometimes

there's snooze fills, you know what I'm saying. But I'm reading something, which is really good for my brain. And it's also really great to get me sleepy. And so, okay, wake up earlier, read an hour before bed. Here's the other thing. Pair a protein with every snack and meal. So when I had the weight loss surgery, before I had the weight loss surgery, during the weight loss surgery, like after, all the nutritionists, said to me, if you pair a protein with everything you have, you'll be fine. So equal proteins to carbs or whatever it is that you're having is the secret. And I lost 20 pounds before I had the surgery and then 100 pounds after the surgery. And yes, the surgery was a tool. It helped me not feel as hungry and it was amazing. But I felt really great. My skin cleared up. I had more

energy and I was losing weight really quickly if I just paired a protein with everything. So if I wanted to have an orange, I'd have a couple turkey slices and an orange. If I wanted a bowl of chips, I'd have some cottage cheese and a small bowl of chips. I just always was like, I have to have a protein with this. And I've gotten away from that lately and I notice that I'm craving sugar more and that I'm not feeling as satisfied. And so the thing about pairing a protein is you you feel fuller for longer. And so it could be just having a turkey pepperette along with a snack. Instead of just having an apple, pair it with peanut butter, have some mixed nuts or some almonds with your popcorn at night. Paring a protein with a carb or with something else and having it sort

of be equal parts keeps you satisfied, keeps you fuller longer, and it just has so many benefits when it comes to losing weight. So not that I want to lose weight, but I do want to stop eating so much sugar. And I notice that having more protein, I'm not saying keto, but pairing a protein with even junk food, it keeps me satisfied longer. And so it helps me stabilize my blood sugar. And I'm not eating as much of the other things that aren't necessarily good for me because I'm eating more protein with it, right? So I'm getting fuller. And so it's a simple thing that I can do. I'm not depriving myself if I want to have a brownie. Cool, Cass, you have a brownie. But what can you have that's protein along with that brownie? And maybe they don't always go together, but I don't really care.

That's the rule and I'm sticking to it. The other thing I've added, I had 30 minutes of exercise a day, but I scratched that out because realism. There's no way I'm going to do a half an hour of exercise a day. I do none now. So real life, I can do 15 minutes a day. I can do 15 minutes a day. Maybe it's push-ups. It's not going to be 15 minutes of push-ups. It's going to be three push-ups. I'm going to die. But I could do push-ups and crunches and maybe go for a walk. I could do 15 minutes of something. Maybe I'll make a whirlpool in the pool with the kids, right? That's exercise. That counts. I can do 15 minutes a day. And the last thing is drink eight glasses of water. I don't know why, but I think water's disgusting.

So I'm going to be drinking flavored water, but I'm really, I have two big giant water bottles, and every night I'm going to set them on the counter, and I have to fill and drink those. That's the goal. Every day. So wake up earlier, go to bed with a book, pair of protein, 15 minutes of exercise, and drink eight glasses of water. What new habits do you want to add to your life? What do you want to do to level up your life? And obviously, if you're listening to this,

my goal right now is to just be healthier. I really want to level up my health. I want to get more sleep and more good quality sleep. I want to get more water and I want to eat better and exercise more. But I can do that in small baby ways. So what are your habits that you want to add to your life? And then let's talk about how we actually make those habits happen because it's one thing for me to say this. And I do. I mean, I've said this for so long, but I haven't taken action. And so I do have some little tricks that will help me take action that I want to share with you. And the first one is keep it visual, which means write a list. I have to write these five things down and put them on my fridge and also set an alarm in my phone to remind me throughout the day that this is my focus. It's sort of like having a vision board, motivates you to keep going towards those goals. You have to have your new habits visual because it

isn't habit yet. It's not something that you're just going to remember to do. I'll forget to do this. And so I need to be reminded of them all day long. So I'm going to write these out. I'm going to type them out and I'm going to put them on my fridge. The next thing is Mel Robbins' five second rule. So I look at this and I'll think, oh my gosh, I'm at the fridge. I don't want a pair of protein. I have to stop my brain from making excuses of why I'm not doing this right now. As soon as I see that list, I need to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, take action. And it really does mean if you count backwards from 5, it sort of resets your brain. It stops you from distracting yourself with all of the excuses that you want to come up with of why you don't want to do it and boom, you take action.

You blast off like a rocket ship like NASA, you know, they count down. and then the rocket blasts off. This, this Mel Robbins technique really does work. So I'm going to write right on the top of this list, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. If I haven't done one of these things, I'm going to look at this out of the corner of my eye. I'm going to be like, oh, I didn't drink eight glasses. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I can have one glass now. So write a list. Remember the 5 second rules. And then dress for success. And so because all of these things that I want to do are, really paired to health, I need to start, I have running shoes that I've never worn, I'm going to put them on in the morning. I'm going to put on yoga pants and workout gear as soon as I get up,

because if I'm dressed like a healthy person, I'm going to behave like a healthy person. As soon as I have that urge, like, oh, I should do my 15 minute workout right now. I don't have to say, but I'm wearing pajamas and I'm not wearing a bra. Heck no, am I going for a jog without a bra. I'm prepared. I'm ready. Five, four, three, two, one, I can take action. And so whatever it is that you want to accomplish with your new habits, maybe it's related to your home. Wear an apron. Put an apron on as soon as you get up. Trust me, you're going to feel like baking cookies and clean in a toilet if you're wearing an apron. Get dressed out of your pajamas.

Wear something nice. If your motivation is to, you know, get a hold of your finances and be a grown up and be more responsible. dress responsible. You're going to feel the way you dress. We dress for success, whatever it is that our success looks like, whatever those habits are, we're going to dress for that. The next thing we do is distract our brain. And we can distract our brain from all of the excuses and the things we tell ourselves of why we can do it later, why we deserve to do it later, we've worked hard today, or we'll have more time later, or we need to get a babysit. or before we tackle the bedroom closet, whatever it is, we can turn that off by distracting our brain

with music, with audiobooks, by calling a good friend on the phone, we're taking our brain, we're putting it on autopilot, so we can do the things that we really want to do. And this isn't just for working out. This isn't just for cleaning the house. This is for so many things in our life that we know we want to do, but we're not doing, we're putting off or procrastinating, we're making excuses, we can shut that off by distracting ourselves. So headphones up guys, podcast, music, audio book, whatever it is you want to do, distract your brain to keep going. And last but not least, five minutes matters. And so I have all

of these big goals on my plate here, but really five minutes. matters. If I don't feel like reading for an hour before bed, I can do five minutes. If I don't feel like exercising for 15 minutes, I can do five. I can do five minutes. If I don't feel like guzzling eight glasses of water, I can have one. I can take baby steps because it's still a step. And I think for the longest time, that's why I wasn't leveling up. It's why I wasn't making a difference in my life because it was all or nothing. Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't, I didn't work out today. so I might as well have that chips anyways, right? I was like, I'll start fresh tomorrow.

I'll do it next week. I'll start this weekend. I never just allowed myself to do it kind of badly, to do a tiny piece of it, to do five minutes of it. Because all of those five minutes add up to a big thing. And that's really the secret. It's stopping, procrastinating,

still allowing yourself permission to not have to finish it, to do it all, to do it well, but do a piece. Take one step. Do one small action now. Five, four, three, two, one, do it. And you're going to be amazed at what that adds up to. And so I'm right now, I'm going to get off this podcast. I'm going to type out those five habits that I want to accomplish. I'm going to put it on my fridge. and I want to check back in with you next week to see if I've actually stuck with it and done these things every single day for at least five minutes. But I'm challenging you right now to write down your habits, some new habits that you want to add to your life. Don't go crazy, you guys. No more than five. This is very extreme for me to make this big of a change so quickly. If you want, start with one.

And next week, I'll see you there. And let's see you there. if we've stuck with it. I'm sure we will. All right. Thank you guys so much for listening. Love you and I'll see you guys next time.